The Death Sword of Arbiter's Grounds
by VenisonStories
Summary: My favorite villian from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess comes to life in this short story. The Death Sword mini-boss in the Arbiter's Grounds tells the story of how he has been trapped in the ancient tomb of the Gerudo Desert. Until Link came in and the mini-boss battle followed.


**The Death** **Sword of Arbiter's Grounds**

My soul has been condemned to rot in this prison for all eternity. I can't remember how long I have been trapped already. But I hate it. I hate this place. I hate everything around me. These sandstone walls. These catacombs. And this large sword all keep me here. Trapped in the Arbiter's Grounds, below the sand. Waiting in pain as I die, but my poor soul remains trapped forever. My biggest prison, the Death Sword, which has trapped my soul and I am bound to the role of its wielder. The Death Sword has long been trapped, embedded in the cracks of this circular chamber, held down by a miriad of ropes laid with ofuda, keeping the sword at rest and my soul awake, waiting one day to be free. If this ofuda weren't here, then I'm sure my soul would finally be free.

It is a nightmare here. I hear there are things worse than death. And that is true. I have rotted here for many years, my soul unrest ever since the Arbiter's Grounds was evacuated. Except for the spirits that remain here. Like me. I am a powerful soul. A demon. I've been here since the beginning. Along with he who made this blade and trapped my soul within it. Ganondorf. But this Death Sword is what keeps me locked in the basement of this sacred tomb. This place was made to keep all the worst villains and criminals in Ancient Hyrule. It has been abandoned by the living for countless years and we, the dead, the spirits, haunt these halls and tombs. I waited silently, for someday, one of these ropes would be cut, awakening my prison blade, and hopefully, the Death Sword would be history, and my soul would be at peace.

The pain here grows stronger and stronger the more I wait. The feeling of my death intensifies. The crooked, broken feeling in my lower spine has corrupted me since my original death. I have died in such a horrible way, and I was such a horrible person when I was alive, that I woke up into the horrible afterlife as a demon. And the Death Sword has come with me, as a permanent part of me, to haunt me now and forevermore.

Today the Death Sword still collects dust in the bottom of the Arbiter's Grounds, bound by the ofuda ropes, keeping both the Death Sword itself, and my poor, miserable, moribund, imprisoned and forever lost soul.

I hate it here. Hate it. Hate it! And my hate for this tomb, my hate for the ancient Arbiter's Grounds, and my eternal hate for the Death Sword itself grows stronger and stronger. It has kept me awake and trapped for centuries and it will keep me awake and trapped for centuries to come. I have died so long ago but my soul has never been at rest. Someday, a rope will finally snap, the Death Sword will be destroyed, and I will be free. Free to finally advance to my afterlife. I will be at peace, and my soul will be happy for once. For once in my miserable mortal life, and my miserable current afterlife.

I have repeated myself, my thoughts for too long now. All I do is think of freedom. Freedom to move on. It's all I can do now. It's all I can do to keep my bound soul to the Death Sword busy. I am tired. I am miserable. I am lonely. Or so I thought. One fateful day my wish for freedom had finally come true.

A brave young adventurer, in green hero's clothes, trotted in my chamber of the Arbiter's Grounds. With the sacred Master Sword, from Ancient Hylian folklore, and a shield with Ancient Hylian symbols, the adventurer came to the center of the circular chamber, the doors locking him in. The young lad looked fearless, to my surprise. And when the blade of his Master Sword split one of the ofuda ropes and it hit the floor of the sandstone tomb, the ground began to shake. The dark energy that Ganondorf had once set into the Death Sword began to awaken, burning the rest of the ropes away. I was awakened and summoned by the sword itself to emerge and pull the sacred evil blade out of the ground. I held the Death Sword ready, to challenge the brave green man. To see if he would free my soul and prove his worth as a hero, he was to face me and the Death Sword and he would grant access to an ancient metal spinning object, which I was sworn to protect down here. But for the man I found him a challenge. I was invisible to his naked eye.

The man suddenly morphed into a wolf creature and ran up to me. He could see me now. I swung the Death Sword to try and stun him but as the blade embedded in the floors he pounced on my back and bit into my intangible body. I had gain a new physical form and shown myself to the adventurer as the trapped demon soul that I was. I floated up in the air, slowly circling him as the black magic from the Death Sword emanated from my long torn black robes. The clever young man transformed back into his human body and pulled out an old bow and fired an arrow at me, it sinking into my bony chest. I groaned deeply, having felt pain for the first time in forever. I quickly circled around the young adventurer with loud screeches, much like a vulture to its prey. As I landed on the ground in front of him, I swung the Death Sword again to him, only for the barbed end of the blade to break the ground again. The adventurer sidestepped out of my blade's way and jumped up to me and with the Master Sword, slicing into the skull of my demon form. I was knocked down to my knees and tried to collect myself, now for the adventurer to repeatedly smash his weapon's blade into my head. I quickly got up to float again but the man predicted my repetitive move and he shot at my chest again. I decided to follow my same offensive maneuver, by circling around the adventurer and as I landed, an arrow flew into the front of my skull, right between the eyes. I fell to my knees again and he slashed at the bony nape of my neck again.

I thought silently to myself as I rose up to the ceiling again.

"If he can defeat me, perhaps the Death Sword would be destroyed, my soul might be freed and I can move on to the real afterlife."

The young lad was a genius. If he slays the Death Sword and frees my soul, he could take the spinning machine for his adventure and I could move on. I never cared about that stupid metal piece. I watch an arrow fly at me again and I circle the man once more with loud screeches and I land to the ground. I swung one more time to the adventurer and he successfully dodges the Death Sword and sends me down on my knees. I stare at the ground and feel the sharp lashes at my neck as he slices a few more times.

I am overwhelmed with the horrible sensation of immense pain, having never felt anything so menacing in centuries. I hold my head, growling at the pain and eventually, the pain is too much for my cursed soul to handle. I let out a piercing, shrill, demonic cry of pain, when the Death Sword exploded into a black burst of twilight, disappeared from existence forever. I feel my soul finally being freed from the Arbiter's Grounds as my dead body disintegrates into a vast swarm of locusts and we all fly up into the hole in the ceiling, at the center of the circular chamber. When flying up, I looked down one last time to the chamber as both the doors opened and the young man ran to the chest and pulling out his mechanical spinning prize. The grin on his face was the last thing I remembered from our encounter. All of my locusts flew out of the shaft from the sacred tombs and up to the dark, starry night sky. Now, I didn't care about anything anymore. My tortured soul was finally free. The Death Sword was destroyed. Ganondorf's grip on me was lost. And I could move on the my long waited afterlife.

To this day, I still thank the young adventurer in green, who set my soul free and destroyed all my restraints from the cruel history of the Arbiter's Grounds. I will remember what he has done and how he had freed me, now and forevermore.


End file.
